Friday Shuffle - Obsession Edition

I've been a little scarce this week. Other things have been taking up my time and it's limited my blog writing and really limited my blog reading. I feel like I haven't visited my regular blog haunts in a month of Sundays and in reality it may be an actual month of Sundays.

So here's what's been occupying me and been my recent obsessions.

• The Winds of War. Remember that mini-series from the 80s? I recently got it in DVD and have become hooked on watching it. I've still got a few more episodes of it before I'm done but it won't last much more because Natalie's had the baby in Rome and all of the Henry kids are in Pearl Harbor so you know it won't take long for all hell to break out. I remember loving it the first time I saw it and I'm still enjoying it but now I see it with a slightly more critical eye. And Robert Mitchum has one emotion in this series - no emotion. The man is so wooden he's in danger of termite infestation. My next DVD viewing obsession? Roots, The Next Generations.
  
  
• Knitting. Specifically these socks - Spring Forward. I love these socks. Not only do they look cool all knitted up but they are the easiest lace socks to knit. Only two pattern repeat variations to memorize so that means no having to look at the pattern each time you complete a round. No tricky stitches like k3togtbl so you don't have to keep your eyes glued to your knitting. And you know what that means? Greater ease of watching Rhonda explain to Fred why she can't divorce Pug in The Winds of War.
  
  
• Watermelon. I can't stop eating watermelon. Sweet, juicy, flavorful watermelon. I'm in love. And so damn regular you can set a watch by me now.
  
  
• Fluffy summer reading. I'm in the middle of reading 1776 by David McCullough and am digging it the mostest but I also just got in a shipment of books for summertime reading. Y'all know I love books in series and really love mystery books in series and two of my very favorite series are the Stephanie Plum series by Janet Evanovich and the Kinsey Millhone series by Sue Grafton. As of Tuesday I now have the not only the two latest Stephanie Plum Between-the-Numbers novels that I've since devouered but have the latest in each of the two series - Fearless Fourteen and T is for Trespass. I love reading a book like 1776 because I can never get enough of reading American history but I have to admit that I look forward to reading my mystery series fluff. Even Julia Child liked to eat at Burger King once in a while.
  
  
• Football. I live in Europe so I'm making a concerted effort to break the habit of calling it "soccer". The final game of the European Championships is on Sunday and Germany will be playing Spain. I've watched every game (except when two were being played at the same time but even then I had the second game on another channel and would flip back and forth) and I am absolutely caught up in the excitement. I've taken to reading sports blogs (I can't read your blogs but I can read sports blogs talking about the football championships - feel free to grumble at me about that) and B and I talk about the matches and the players and consider what strategies the coaches will take. I even went to the public viewing held at our city's old market square last Wednesday when Germany played against Turkey. I really just wanted to see what was going on and was sorely disappointed. I knew that I couldn't get up close to the viewing screen and therefore up where the real fans were so I hung back on the edges and observed. Ugh. Broken glass, drunk, thuggy looking guys, drunk, trampy looking girls and more broken glass. I headed my sandal wearing self back home before I got my foot sliced open and I missed any of the second half. You know I watch football every week during club season - Bundesliga and Regional Liga both - but the excitement I have over the European Championships and the World Cup is different. Most of my Sunday will be taken up with what I normally do on Sundays but by the time late afternoon rolls around I'll be in full football excitement. Deutschland vor!

Let's shuffle:

1. Time To Pretend - MGMT
2. Talking To My Angel - Melissa Etheridge
   
3. Hedonistic Me - Born Ruffians
4. Skinny Love - Bon Iver
5. White Winter Hymnal - Fleet Foxes
6. Ain't No Fun (Waiting Round To Be A Millionaire) - AC/DC
7. Mr. Maker - The Kooks
8. One's On The Way - Loretta Lynn
   
9. Ragged Wood - Fleet Foxes
10. Bron-Y-Aur Stomp - Led Zeppelin